Nicolas Sarkozy was last night handed a mandate to change France after a massive turnout in one of the most divisive presidential election campaigns in the country's history.

As rioting broke out at Bastille, on the other side of central Paris, the rightwing former interior minister promised to make France love itself again. Mr Sarkozy, who was criticised for exploiting racial and social divisions in his campaign and accused of brutality by his opponent, the Socialist Ségolène Royal, declared: "Tonight is not the victory of one France over another." He vowed would represent "all of France and leave no one by the side of the road."

But as he talked, there were reports of car-burnings in the suburbs and trouble flaring in Lyon, with police firing flashballs after skirmishes between leftwing activists and Sarkozy supporters.

In a master stroke of political showmanship, Mr Sarkozy staged a huge celebration rock concert to launch his "economic revolution" in Paris's Place de La Concorde, where heads rolled from the guillotine during the first French revolution. But last night, he promised no less than a national resurrection built on hard work.

"I want a France where everyone has a chance - but chance comes for those who work for it," he said, echoing his campaign slogan that he would represent the silent France "that wakes up early". There would be a national reconciliation based on everyone, no matter what background, being given equal "dignity and respect".

Thousands had rallied, inspired by his calls to "liquidate the legacy of May 1968" ending the nanny state, "political correctness gone mad" and breaking the power of the unions and the 35-hour-week. After a campaign fuelled with hardline rhetoric that unashamedly courted the far-right on immigration and national identity, Mr Sarkozy last night struck a more inclusive tone, but urged to be France to be "proud of its history" and unashamed of its past.

Flanked on stage by his idol, the ageing French Elvis, Johnny Hallyday, and his wife Cecilia, whose long absences during the campaign fuelled gossip of another rift in their relationship, Mr Sarkozy savoured the moment he had been working towards all his life. The son of a minor Hungarian aristocrat, his unstoppable ambition had been driven by his sense of victimhood as a child made to feel an outsider because of his foreign name, his height and his parents divorce.

His victory by 53% to 47% of the vote was the third consecutive presidential defeat for the Socialist party, which within moments of the first results had already begun tearing itself apart, even though it faces parliamentary elections within a month. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the social democrat moderniser who had been beaten to the candidacy by Ms Royal, said the party had failed to learn the lessons of its last catastrophic defeat to the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002.

However, Ms Royal showed no signs of stepping aside and vowed to stick it out and rally the battered party.

His foreign policy is likely to break the mould of French diplomacy and be more supportive of the US and more pro-Israeli than any previous French leaders. In his first statement last night, he said the United States can "count on our friendship", but added, "friendship means accepting that friends can have different opinions." He urged the United States to take the lead on climate change and said the issue would be a priority for France.

Within minutes of the polls closing, Mr Blair and the US president George Bush called him to congratulate him.

Mr Sarkozy inherits from Jacques Chirac a nation deeply ill at ease with itself, a stagnant economy, growing debt, acute youth unemployment which has exacerbated serious social unrest in the run-down suburbs. Although he has successfully styled himself as a "clean break" with the past, he has served in government for over a decade, presiding over the finance and the interior ministry during the 2005 riots, the worst unrest in 40 years. The country saw its biggest street demonstrations in a decade last year over the government's plans for a new labour contract.

But those confrontations may only be a taster of the clashes to come, with even his own party admitting it may face an autumn and winter of discontent as it tries to push through their ambitious reform programme. Mr Sarkozy hopes next month's parliamentary elections will strengthen his party's majority in the national assembly. Already he has planned an extraordinary parliamentary session in the summer to push through reforms including loosening the 35-hour week, tightening immigration laws and limiting strike powers.